Wertytrew's Life

Thursday, 31 July 2008
Setting a new world record......
I got to know that Penang is organizing the world's largest dragon boat race after reading The Star newspaper this morning. Though I know that Penang did organized dragon boat race every year ( if I'm not mistaken), but this time they are planning to host the largest festival. Coincidentally, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair was in a visit to Malaysia on Tuesday to attend the 22nd Sultan Azlan Shah Law Lecture in Kuala Lumpur and State Tourism, Culture, Arts and Heritage Commitee chairman, Danny Law Heng Kiang is planning to invite him to attend the event.
[To read the whole article from The Star...]

Pictures of newspaper cuttings that have been cut into 2 pieces for easier viewing
(PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURE FOR BIGGER VIEW)

Saturday, 26 July 2008
Partial darkness of the Earth......
On first of August 2008, parts of the Northern Hemisphere will soon see a rare total solar eclipse. Its path will begin in Canada and continue northeast across Greenland and the Arctic, then southeast through central Russia, Mongolia, and China. The eclipse will start around 8:30 a.m. Greenwich mean time in the eastern part of the arc, leading to totality in just under an hour. In a much wider swath of the globe—including northeastern North America along with most of Europe and Asia—people will be able to see a partial eclipse. [ Click here to read more]

Hoping to see...
I hope I will be able to see even smallest part of that eclipse. I have never seen before my eyes a solar nor a lunar eclipse. Since it's on Friday, that means I have to go to school on that day. Moreover, my school will be having "Hari Anugerah"- Prize Giving Day(sory, I don't know how to translate) on that Friday. So, hurray for no studies.

Xtra: Photo Gallery- The Moon

Thursday, 16 July 2008
Doing community service......
I went on a school trip to the Penang Home, housed to around 285 old people. The trip was organised in conjunction with the Moral Language Week in my school. There were about 50-60 students following the trip there. This is also the first time I go to an old folk's home...officially...Once I went there just to visit around the Penang Home without spending time with the old citizen there. Besides that, I need this community service to complete my Moral course work. Having fun with the old people is too another reason.

Beginning.....
Before we started boarding our buses(2), our teachers gave us some taklimat( a set of brief guide) of our trip. Actually, the way to the Penang Home from our school is just like 15 minutes of driving. So, approximately we reached there at about 8.15am. Though, I had wished to sleep a little longer in the bus....In fact, we have been told that we had reached there a little earlier. The people in charged there had planned for us an activitiy to do Xiang Gong with the old people. So, practically we had a nice half an hour of Xiang Gong with them.

The tour.......
One of the person in charged in that home is Mr. Chandran. He gave us a tour of the home and there were plenty of facilities for the oldies. I am happy for them...Among the facilities provided are Dewan Rekreasi(Recreational Hall), Klinik(Clinic)-24 hours of medical care, Karaoke, pebble pathway, television, Bingo playing area and a lot more. Overall, the place is very clean and ideal as the home is very near to the Lam Wah Ee Hospital. During our tour, we had a chance to talk together with the old folks there. They were happy to share their experiences of staying at the home with us.

Performance time....
After that, it was performance time. The first performance was performed by a group of old people. They sang a chinese song(not sure the title). One of the lead singer even sang us a MALAY SONG! She was energetic while singing the song solo. Then, it was our turn to perform. My class was the first group to perform. We sang Do-Re-Mi as we have thought that they might like it. At first, we had planned to sing both Do-Re-Mi and "Mua Li Hua" songs. But then, think again the MuaLiHua song was too hard for us. There were quite a number of performances that were planned for the old folks, including feshion shows(I don't really agree with that either), more singing, and group singing with the old folks(One of the songs were The Sha-La-La song).

Nearing the end....
Before we ended the trip, we had a birthday party for the old people there who had their birthdates in the month of July. We gave them some gifts before we left the Penang Home. They thanked us for coming to entertain all those old folks. I am glad that we did something for them. Good efforts come from the hearts, not just assets.

*I hope I am able to upload some pictures on this trip*

Update: I have finished uploading all the pictures for viewing.

This is Penang Home, located somewhere in Green Lane, beside Lam Wah Ee Hospital.


Group picture


The old folks people are doing Xiang Gong. They do this every single morning.


Form 4 students can be seen doing Xiang Gong with the old people there. The crews from TV9 are there too(at the center of the pic).


One of the "Ah Gong" there, saying Hi to everyone or maybe he does not want to be in the picture...


The hall is fulled of spectators, waiting to watch performances.


Performance by the old folks people


Me and classmates singing "DoReMi" (simple enough for the old people to listen, isn't it??)


An Indian dance


Everyone dancing while the old man is singing "Sha-La-La"


Mr. Chandran is singing "Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia"(a hokkien song) and he is an Indian. Cool.....


Fashion show


Sort of "The Finale"


Looking at their mouth and they said "Sleup, hor liau lor(Yummy)".


My school teachers are presenting hampers to their people.

Going back to school....sob

Tuesday, 7 July 2008
Not anti-social case.....
LOL.....after like for so many years didn' t really go out with my friends, finally I went out with them yesterday to Gurney Plaza. Some of them are who I have known them since my primary schools and believe it or not, I have NEVER gone out with them a single time!!!!. Actually, it's not really the problem of me being "anti-social", I'm just LAZY...I felt the fun of staying at home. I like playing computer games, surfing the net and of course watching television.

Walking together.....
So, after all this time, I finally went out with them to one of the malls in Penang. I did promise my friends that I will be out with them when I'm 16 years old. Why 16???(not sure). I was thinking of buying one of my friend a birthday present, but then felt like it was so "not-fun". In the end, I took this chance to go shopping with my friends and at the same time, belanja my belated-birthday friend eat something.

Sitting Rapid Penang for the first time.....
There are quite some "first-time" events in this post. Me and the belated-birthday friend(Fion) went to Gurney Plaza by bus and this is also the first time I sit in Rapid Penang (a type of bus). It costed me RM1.50 to go from Gelugor to Komtar and another RM1, from Komtar to Gurney. However, we walked from Midlands to Gurney as we were hesitated whether the bus we took will bring us directly to Gurney. When we reached the mall, there were already 4 friends waiting for us there. We sort of walking around in the mall for some time because we were waiting for another 2 friends to come.

Eating at Kim Gary Restaurant......
After the other 2 friends have reached, we went to eat at Kim Gary restaurant. That was also my first visit to that restaurant and first time eating at such a high-class restaurant. The "highest" class restaurant that I had gone to was Secret Recipe (if I'm not mistaken). WHOA!!! The food in Kim Gary Restaurant were so pricey, the cheapest one was like RM6.50. I didn't really look through the whole order list. That was what I ate and it was a pork burger. Though it was really, really delicious. I didn't really order any drink but just a cold,plain water for 50cent. Anyway, altogether of us 8 people ate for about RM95.50. How Expensive......swt. (BEH KAM AR)

No direction to go.....
After that, we couldn't decide whether we wanted to watch a movie or not. The earliest movie was starting at 2.30pm-4.45pm(The Incredible Hulk). Some of us had to go back at 3pm while some had already watched the movie. So, we decided just to hang around the mall. We splitted into 2 groups. I was hanging around with 4 friends. We went the most into shoplots selling shoes. Haiz.....they were like trying on high-heels shoes and all those sort of stuffs. In the end, we came into this Metro Jaya. They sold clothes for men and women. In the woman's section, dresses were the most to be seen.

Forced to wear.......-dress-............
When I first stepped into the lot, I didn't really feel good. My instinct was damn right when my friends forced to me try on the dresses. They chose for me one. That dress was like damn nice for my friends but I felt totally the other way round about the dress. I HATE DRESS!!!!! I just don't like wearing them. They were like persuading me to wear it or else they will buy for me a pink dress/shirt on my next birthday. How ket sam is that..........They even planned for my prom's night attire and shoes.

Mission failed.....
HAHAHAHA!!!! In the end, I won the mission. I didn't have to wear the dress as I kept insisting that "I don't want". ME-1 & DRESS-0. Cheers!!! But I'm not sure when I can run away from this thing. Yesterday was like my very first outing with them and they left such a memorable event for me. SWT...

Source: http://www.jpr.com.my/ProCom.htm


Kim Gary Restaurant in Gurney Plaza
Source: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/2476322.html

Sunday, 6 July 2008
4 in 1 Day.......
Yesterday, I went to school because it was a Co-curriculum Day & Hari Senithon & Hari Kluster & Hari Pelancaran Bulan Kecergasan. Yes.....4 events in one day. In fact, I wasn't planning to go to school at all but think back, I had already paid RM4 for the abseiling event. All of us were required to line up at the Perdana Field by 7.30am. We were waiting for the VIP to arrive, who is the Deputy Minister of Education II of Malaysia, Y.B. Dato' Razali bin Ismail. He was greeted with lion dance team and "kompang" team from our own school girls. Man!!! Dato' Razali really knows how to make jokes. He made the whole crowd laughing during his speech.

Dancing.......
After everyone's speeches, we needed to sing all the songs from national anthem, Negaraku to our school song. Immediately after that, the "Senam Seni" or called as The Exercise of Arts(my grammar sucks...) started. It is actually a combination of dances from different cultures such as Tarian Zapin(Malay dance), Silat(Malay martial art), Chinese Dance, Indian Dance, and a few more if I'm not mistaken. Gosh..... those showing the steps on top of the stage were all TEACHERS!!! How cool is that.....I didn't really much do most of the dances or moves. Wait till I post a video on my friend doing the dance....

Blur case.......
Practically after that, we didn't do much as me and my 3 friends were waiting turns to go for the abseiling thing. There were 2 events organised by the school's Sport Section which are the abseiling and another one is flying fox. I chose abseiling as I was eager to try it. Flying fox seems more fun but you just need to slide down and that's the end of the story. We waited from like 10am till 11am because there was some technical issues and a "blur teacher". That teacher called us to wait up there for our turns but she didn't give us the equipment to wear. So, we were like waiting for our turn up at the building for the whole hour.

Miracle......
I was like getting more nervous as every minutes had passed. In the end, when the instructor called us down again to wear the equipments, it was like 11am. Me and another friend had duties. So, we left. Actually, I sort of giving up of doing the abseiling thing. Honestly, I chickened out.(= ='). So, I decided to go back at 12pm instead of 2pm. But then, miracle happened. My friend, May Lyn asked for my help to find her sister because she needed to inform her sister that they were going back at 12pm too. So, me and May Lyn went on finding and finding until we reached the abseiling area.

2 decisions......
Then, I saw my 3 friends again. They were still waiting. The earlier friend that went for duty had came back there and wait for her turn. So, they were persuading me to do abseiling thing. At first, one of them called me to help them tell teacher that we were here first when waiting for the turn. However, at that time was like 11.45pm, and my friends still haven't get their turns. So, I helped them to tell the "blur teacher" and finally we got our turns to do the abseiling FIRST! My friend, May Lyn went on looking for her sister and I went to do the abseiling thing. (Don't need to say it, I know I suck, having to left May Lyn alone finding her sis......but if I don't do the abseiling, I wasted my RM4...plz understand my feeling)

On top of the world(lol, only 3 storeys).......
When I was up there hanging on top of the 3 storeys building, I don't really feel the scariness nor the nervousness. It was that excitement that pushed me to do it. I did 2 "jumps"(not sure the correct word) down the building and the rest, I couldn't hang on anymore. So, I was like sliding down the rope and when I reached the ground,....PHEW!!!! I said in my mind, "I am safed now". But, my hands were burning at the moment. It hurted a lot. Whatever it is, I have done the abseiling and I HAD CONQUERED MY FEAR!!! That's the best part of it. At that time was around 12.20pm and I told my father to come and fetch me at 12pm.

Swt......pitty him waiting for me outside the gate.

Lion Dance